Airbnb Integrates AmEx Payments and Rewards Points

Andrew Sheivachman, Skift

- Nov 03, 2015 12:01 am

Skift Take

Airbnb takes another step closer to the mainstream through its new partnership with American Express. Hosts who are American Express cardholders will receive visible credentials on Airbnb, creating a new layer of host verification.

— Andrew Sheivachman

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Airbnb and American Express are joining forces to let American Express cardholders book stays more easily on Airbnb.

Following an agreement between the two companies, American Express cardholders in the U.S. can now create an Airbnb account seamlessly with their existing American Express account and spend their Membership Rewards points toward Airbnb bookings.

“Both the American Express and Airbnb brands stand for travel; we have a rich history as a travel company and Airbnb represents a new frontier in travel,” said Dave Wolf, vice president of global product & business development at American Express. “We have seen an incredible amount of engagement by our customers on their platform, and we always want to go where our customers are.”

Airbnb hosts can also link their American Express account with Airbnb to add verification that they’re a cardholder to their account. The partnership between the companies has grown since the two connected last year on a smaller project.

“We had a small partnership around a year ago putting Airbnb on the Amex gift card wall,” Airbnb’s head of payments and business development Lex Bayer said. “The engineering teams at Airbnb and Amex have been working side by side to put this integration together in what has become a seamless customer experience, it really makes it almost trivial for an amex member to decide to use Airbnb.”

American Express members can also use American Express Checkout, the company’s online payment solution, instead of using a credit card.

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